Reflections on Theology, History, and Culture

E.C. Blackman

This post is part of an ongoing series examining Marcion of Sinope and his influence of the formation of the New Testament canon.

We now turn to the third perspective on Marcion’s relationship with the notion of a specifically Christian canon, namely that while Marcion likely refined the idea and parameters of canon, he was basically following the example of previous collections of Christian writings. This I term the “Canon Refinement School” of thought. As this position best fits the evidence from textual criticism (as I argued for in last week’s post), this school of thought has become increasingly popular in recent decades. Continue reading →